Stay
by Stelena-Beautiful
Summary: The one time Maxie asks someone to stay... A Maxie Jones/James Ford one shot.


_**A James Ford/Maxie Jones one shot.**_

**Stay**

The minute she walked into Jake's her eyes seemed to zero in on him like a heat seeking missile. She couldn't believe it. He was actually here. He had really shown up. She should have known he would. He had called her after all.

Boy, had he grown by leaps and bounds. He was also supremely gorgeous now and when he spotted her and turned his baby blue eyes on her, she shivered involuntarily.

"Max," he said in a hushed, almost reverent voice.

Maxie felt ripples of desire shoot down her spine unbidden but she forced herself to snap out, "It's Maxie, thank you very much." She eased onto a seat two stools down from him. She didn't dare get too close to him lest her hormones get the best of her. And they could. He was looking just that good in his fit jeans and a tee-shirt that hugged his firm muscles.

"Now what do you want?" she barked. "I assume you want something or you wouldn't have called."

"I do," he said and looked over at her. "But first, how are you doing? The weekend we spent together ... You were all torn up. Drunk as a skunk..."

"And so were you," Maxie returned snappishly. "Though I admit I was drunker... If that's a word ... You got me wasted so you could have your way with me."

He pulled a face. "Are you seriously going there?"

"Well you sure dumped me fast enough."

"Max..."

"Stop calling me that!" She said and remembered too well how he had called her "Max" right before he had thrust into her gently the first time. They had quickly found their rhythm and he had started to speed up the pace as she writhed in pleasure murmuring "more, more, god more." God that seemed so long ago to her when it had really only been three years since that hot weekend.

"Okay, Maxie it is," he said begrudgingly and he looked at her in such a way she knew he too was remembering the way she orgasmed in his arms for a good five minutes after their first round of intense sex.

"I just want to be sure you're doing okay," he said. "You know, you were grieving then."

Maxie sniffed. "I remember. But hey, I found love with my sister's former crush. They probably would have ended up together but you know she died."

"Yeah. How are you dealing with that?"

Maxie glared at him. "How do you think I'm dealing with it?" she snapped and then sighed. "Every time the anniversary of her death rolls around ... I just feel ... Gutted." She bit her lip. She hadn't meant to tell him that much. He didn't deserve that much. He had left her just like everyone else had...

"I'm sorry," James said. "I really mean that."

She nodded. "Yeah... Well you didn't come here to talk about my dead sister you never knew so... Why did you come?"

"I met someone." He said it so quietly she almost didn't hear him.

"Speak up, Jimmy," she said. Why did she feel like crying right now? She hadn't given James serious thought in so long. Or she'd tried not to. It was only in the dark of night when the memories came, when the thoughts of what could have been, haunted her. If he just would have asked her not to go, she would have stayed with him forever.

"I met someone," he said louder. "Her name's Starr."

"Sounds like a porn name."

"She's not anything like that. She's good and she's thoughtful and fun and -"

She held up a hand to stop him. "Yeah I get it. She's Mrs. Right."

"Yeah, she could be," James allowed. "But see I have another Missus and I can't legally wed Starr until -"

"Ohmigod. You're thinking of marrying her!" Maxie couldn't help but screech. "James, you're not even twenty four yet, right? Don't you think you're a little young to get married?"

"Age didn't stop me before," James pointed out. That silenced Maxie. For about a second.

"That was different," she said. "That was very different."

"How? I knew you for all of two seconds before we got married by an Elvis impersonator. I've known Starr for over a year now and we make sense."

Maxie rolled her eyes. "Good. Cause 'making sense' is the perfect reason to get married."

"Its stability," James said with a shrug. "And I do love her."

Maxie nodded. "Yeah, yeah I get it. Where are the divorce papers? Let's do this now and get it over with."

James watched her closely. She felt literally naked and exposed in front of him, like he could see right through her. "You sure that's what you want, Max - Maxie?"

"Yeah of course," Maxie said. "It's not like you and me have a future. As you said, we knew each other for a second. I was missing Georgie and Cooper. You were trying to outrun your psycho dad. It was never enough to build a relationship on. So give me the damn papers already." She held out her hand which to her horror was shaking.

Before she could react he was climbing off his stool and moving over to her and pulling her into the warmest and most inviting hug ever. His lips buried in her hair as he murmured, "I'm sorry. So sorry if I hurt you."

"Well you did," she said and started to pull away but suddenly his lips were on hers, gentle and prying before his tongue was pressing up against the opening of her mouth, demanding entrance. They kissed for a good minute before the desperate need for air became an issue.

She pulled away from him and then slapped him across the face. "You let me go, James. You don't get to come back here and do that, kiss me like that. I'm trying so hard to build a life that doesn't include my weekend-long fling."

He rubbed his cheek. "I think we both know it was more than that, Maxie," James said. "And I would have asked you to stay if I thought that's what you wanted. But you were grieving..."

"I know," Maxie said. "I know but everyone leaves me and I hate it. I knew I had fallen in love with you the minute we had sex for the first time. I just couldn't ask you to stay because well, I couldn't."

"Ask me to stay now," James urged her.

"Jimmy, seriously. You were ready to propose to another girl..."

"I said I loved her, not that I was in love with her. You see there's this crazy little blonde wife of mine who already stole my heart three years ago and never gave it back. I don't even want it back. So ask me, Max. Ask me to stay and I'll never leave you."

Maxie nodded and slipped into his waiting arms. "Stay, James, stay with me forever."

FINIS


End file.
